Clearwater International advises the shareholders of IS Inkasso Service on the sale to Lowell GFKL Group

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Clearwater International has acted as sole financial adviser to HANNOVER Finanz and the management on the sale of 100% of the share capital of IS Group Management GmbH (trading as IS Inkasso Service or “IS Inkasso”) to Lowell GFKL Group, a portfolio company of Permira Funds and Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan.

IS Inkasso, headquartered in Linz, Austria, is the market leader in Austrian receivables management (by number of managed cases). The business focuses on third party debt collection and risk management services and has long-standing relationships with several blue-chip customers across various verticals including telecommunications, media services, financial services and commerce.

The Lowell GFKL Group was created in October 2015 following the merger of UK and German market leaders the Lowell Group and GFKL and is one of the largest credit management companies in Europe.

The acquisition is highly strategic and concludes a long-standing relationship between the two businesses. On the one hand it allows the Lowell GFKL Group to serve its clients across the entire German speaking region, offering its combined portfolio of receivables and risk management services. On the other hand IS Inkasso benefits from several highly complementary competences, including the ability to purchase debt portfolios using an industry leading pricing platform and to further improve collection success rates through data analytics.

“The combination enables us to further diversify the Group whilst moving into a very attractive growth market which we know very well already. The acquisition is highly strategic as it further develops our position as a pan-European player whilst yielding significant synergies.”

James Cornell, CEO, Lowell GFKL Group

“We’re pleased to advise HANNOVER Finanz and the management on the disposal of IS Inkasso. As the market leading Austrian debt collection agency, the acquisition of IS Inkasso will support Lowell GFKL Group in becoming a pan-European leader in debt collection and credit receivables management services. The successful transaction has once again proven our expertise in the debt collection market – and it is this year’s second deal in the sector.”